My question is that where the truth of 'Economist' was in the last few years since AL came to power. At that time everything was okay as it was in favour of them. Now, it may be that the govt. at present is not as obedient to them as before. This is the western media and western country culture. All western countries are at the same center of the circle.The govt. took a big step against western interest by sacking Dr. Younus. Hilary's cancellation of visit to Bangladesh, Mr. Clinton's recent comments and the 'Economist' column all are in the same line. There's nothing new. Like these so many things will happen in the next also till the govt. is disobedient to them. All the parties in the past came to power in Bangladesh with their support only. They always follow the divide and rule policy in these countries.
I need answer from the 'Economist'.

This is nothing but another anti-Bangladesh article by The Economist- which never misses an opportunity to slander Bangladesh or its War of Independence. Get over it! The butchers of the Pakistan Army you and the Western Governments supported in 1971 lost big! Accept your humiliation like true Brits- that's your destiny! Also this line->{Ever since 2008, when the Awami League, helped by bags of Indian cash and advice, triumphed in general elections in Bangladesh, relations with India have blossomed. }opens up The Economist to a libel and slander lawsuit-unless you have evidence, which I doubt. Truly disgraceful piece of journalism. Too bad Murdoch is not the only idiot in media in the UK-looks like the poorer England gets, the more its moral standards slip!

"[W]ar-crimes trials over the events of 1971.." Events? What events? For the esteemed columnist of The Economist genocide, rape of tens of thousands of women and girls and other atrocities are "events of 1971" so much for the objectivity and honesty in this report.

Bravo, at last the cat is out of the bag that the last election was really allegedly hijacked by India for its stooge Awami League. This sort of behaviour from India will not make you a Super Power and people of Bangladesh will hate you more as we already do as it is quite obvious when India plays Pakistan in Bangladesh, all Bangladeshis except the Hindus support Pakistan. So India go back home and do not interfere with our sovereignty and our security. We are not for Sale and you will not be our friend until you stop killing our people on the borders,occupy our land and claim out Island in the Bay of Bengal when it is clearly ours.

Moreover, when AL is booted out and all the AL thugs are jailed then we shall reverse all AL's criminal acts and we shall ban AL as a party in Bangladesh for cheating.

@ No mist your comments and suggestions are very arrogant.
1. why students from BD need to go to indian uni. There are plenty Bangladeshi university which perform lot better than inidan universities.
2. India itself is a extremely poor country where people still die due to not having enough food, clean water etc. There is no need for any Bangledshi to go to india on working visa. You first have to feed your own people before sticking your nose into other people's business.
3. How do you know all of them will opt for Indian citizenship? Bangldesh is more fertile and better resourced to cultivate on top of them our values, history are better than india.
4. India does not need to be generous. We just want our fair share of water. Currently by not giving the fair share of water (and opening the flood gate during monsoon) India is breaking the international law. @ No mist your comments and suggestions are very arrogant.
1. why students from BD need to go to indian uni. There are plenty Bangladeshi university which perform lot better than inidan universities.
2. India itself is a extremely poor country where people still die due to not having enough food, clean water etc. There is no need for any Bangledshi to go to india on working visa. You first have to feed your own people before sticking your nose into other people's business.
3. How do you know all of them will opt for Indian citizenship? Bangldesh is more fertile and better resourced to cultivate on top of them our values, history are better than india.
4. India does not need to be generous. We just want our fair share of water. Currently by not giving the fair share of water (and opening the flood gate during monsoon) India is breaking the international law.

This report has written by intensionally.No reporter's name.I am sure writter must be a Paki minded RAZAKAR who don't want a good relation between Indo-Bangla.The Economist should review again n again before print a report.I hope Bangladesh government will send protest soon against this report. Regards,

Reading some recent comments, it appears that some readers giving proxy to the government's intelligent agencies.

Government has circulated a rejoinder. I read it thoroughly and I found it nothing but a tiring twaddling that we used to hear from the government regulated media in Bnagladesh. Isn't so funny hearing the argument that PM Hasina introduced Prof. Yunus to the world ! The language of rejoinder also implies the governments level of tolerance against any criticism.

The Economist should publish this sort of analysis frequently and the world will know how terrified are we living in this hell of Bangladesh Awami League.

Sheikh Hasina has increasingly over the past two and half years become more autocratic in her actions and certainly so over the past few months. Having said that I should add that I have no time either for the previous regime of Khaleda Zia. Unfortunately Prof Yunus naively thought that he could participate as the third alternative party in the elections and has been castigated and condemned by the current Awami League govt for his actions, because he was seen as a threat who had to be put in his place.
The recent developments regarding the constitution i.e. scrapping of the caretaker govt, was a totally cynical ploy by the incumbent party in power. The PM is surrounded by 'yes' men and women, sycophants who are only interested in one thing and could not care for the suffering of the common man in the street. Prices during Ramadan have been rising and power shortages have been commonplace. It is no surprise that corruption is rampant and getting worse, but having said that corruption had also become extreme during the previous BNP regime. Cynics will say that the Economist article is backed by opposition BNP supporters for their own interest.
On a final point it is important for Bangladesh to maintain good relations with India who is the regional superpower, but it has been to be done in the right way. Bangladesh cannot afford to sell itself down the river by bending over backwards to accomodate India. The visit of the Indian PM to Bangladesh next month will be very interesting, but as the article stated it would be in their interest to maintain cordial relations with Khaleda Zia. Bangladesh politics can be remarkably fickle and the electorate have short memories and India should remember that.

one of the paragraph writes… "More striking, India’s army might try supplying its expanding divisions parked high on the border with China, in Arunachal Pradesh. China disputes India’s right to Arunachal territory, calling it South Tibet. S...ome Bangladeshis fret that if India tries to overcome its own logistical problems by, in effect, using Bangladesh as a huge military marshalling yard, reprisals from China would follow."----- Alas, the writer does not even have the least idea about the beehive and how the bees behave under threat or how a profiteer maneuvers.

Bangladesh is already a good market for its’ giant neighbour and also a cause of sever head-ache. Given the confusing size of its’ population (Stat Department Vs. those ill-fated Bangladeshis left out of counting) and seemingly a fertile ground for militant cultivation (as pointed by our London!!! based Intel reporter), using this ‘low-lying’ country ‘as a huge military marshalling yard’ will be India’s opening of Pandora’s Box.

‎"Opposition boycotts of parliament and general strikes are run-of-the-mill." Dear Reporter please tell me when Bangladesh had a parliament where the ruling and the oppositions parties ‘EMBRACED’ each other?.... never in last 20 years...

by the way... were you present at some kind of evening tea party of those "including military types" just a couple of weeks ago???

Your unprofessional comments like the ones below (be sure they are just 2 of a multitude of comments that are vulgar and unprofessional in nature)

"Ever since 2008, when the Awami League, helped by bags of Indian cash and advice, triumphed in general elections in Bangladesh, relations with India have blossomed."

and ....

"Mr. Singh, the Gandhi family retainer ...."

--- has led me to believe that you tried to be 'thought provoking' (I am being gentle) to say the least. But alas you fail to realise how it has backfired on you. Your baseless and clearly prejudiced opinion piece (the article in question) does great injury to the reputation of the Magazine. I for one shall stop my subscription and will suggest all my friends to stop subscribing to this magazine if such articles continue to be posted. Please get your facts right and adhere to professional journalism. I definitely expected more from the editing department.

This is not first time that foreign blogger writes without deliberately thinking over the Bangladeshi history and circumstances, even more this writer has tried to establish few political fake propaganda.

Yes, this government can't ruling recently so well, but they got huge mandate against last corrupted alliance. So far I saw, last general election had no cash play, even many times lesser than last local government election.
This new is mostly fake and imaginary.

A well documented report which bear the insights and geopolitical perspectives. To my understanding both parties (AL and BNP), as well as people of Bangladesh, want to have good neighborly relation with India. The present government in Bangladesh (AL) literally gag the press and corruption is outspread. AL is becoming more autocratic these days and put a blind eye to its miscreant supporters. Recently, president of Bangladesh, a front-runner of AL, show clemency to a terror and murdered who has been convicted for mass murder only because the person is AL supporter. Anyway, it is worth reading the following article published in "Business World" almost on similar topic: http://www.businessworld.in/bw/2011_04_01_Neighbourly_Conduct.html

Excellent piece of analysis. As a Bangladeshi, I must say that currently we are passing politically, socio-economically, morally and almost in every aspect of our lives the most miserable and disgusting time. BUT, there is a big 'If'. IF you are actively belonged to this ruling part - Bnagladesh Awami League , this country is heaven for you. You will get indemnity against any sort of ill jobs, from stealing to killing. be assured that you may expect the indemnity starting from the village police to the President of the state itself.

Hasina and her regime is submitting almost everything (sometimes even unimaginably hastily) to the so-called 'Big brother' at the cost of having assurance to keep her in power by any means. She does not care about the sufferings of the ordinary people. If you would dare to raise your voice, you will be the target of secret killing mission. Media is not free, they are chained by the intelligence. .... so lot of things to say ... But, I must thank the Economist for bringing the truth to the world and hope that this will be kept continued ...

Her Excellency Ms.Dipu Moni, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh told the BDNews.com what her patron has been saying in her public meetings in the country. Its good she used the courtesy of the Economist, London to share the information with readers of the international media. Hope it works to lift up the image of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

"Ever since 2008, when the Awami League, helped by bags of Indian cash and advice, triumphed in general elections in Bangladesh, relations with India have blossomed"

Its all in the wikileaks documents. Do your research before you question the credibility of the article. We don't want outside interference to deal with internal matters, so India please stay out and make some bollywood movies for us to enjoy.

@Tanvirbengal- you are spot on, ordinary Bangladeshis have no hate for Indians, we are the same people pretty much. But if India has hegemonic aims towards our nation obviously there will be backlash. Bengalis are the biggest nation in the subcontinent, and nationalism transcends religion. Bengalis in India don't like speaking Hindi just as we didn't like speaking Urdu. Trying to economically dominate Bangladesh will eventually backfire.

I too was dissatisfied by this report. Besides the orientation, assessments of events, past and present, bearing on India-B'desh relations is poor and unpersuasive.

My language, in the first flush of reading the report, was, perhaps, too strong. My post (which appeared in the first page) was removed. I could not guess the reason besides the strong language, I admit, I had used.

Not abusive, just strong, language. The Economist, I would have thought, should be made of sterner material than to take exception to strong language. After all, I think of The Economist as amongst the top in the world, more influential than some famous American ones I know.